Las Charades
From Madrid. Awesome girl pop in the vein of Tiger Trap sung in
Spanish. I saw them play in Barcelona in January and their show was
oddly reminiscent of Tiger Trap too. Their album is out on Bcore and
is totally great.
http://www.myspace.com/lascharades
http://www.bcoredisc.com/
Delorean
Ok, my love of Delorean is well documented on my website, but ths year
they have gotten so smart. They started throwing parties with their
friends (mainly DJ K*O) all over Spain called DESPARRAME where
sometimes they play and sometimes they don't and have even gone to
Moscow to have them there! The parties are a mix of DJ sets and live
sets and are totally incredible dance experiences. Hopefully they'll
come to the U.S. with them in 2009. Check out their blog for mixes you
can download and their funny Spanish posts about new tracks they love.
They've also been doing lots of remixes of Teenagers, Big Pink,
Lemonade and more. They are all awesome, but I'm just desperate for
new Delorean songs.
http://desparrameeeee.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/deloreandanz
Cooking School
In September I began the Chef's Training Program at the Natural
Gourmet Institute. It's a part time program teaching cooking
techniques and theory of health supportive cooking. I go Wednesday
nights and all day Saturday. It's intense but also intensely
wonderful. I've learned a ton of practical information on how to be a
fundamentally better cook through proper preparation, but I've also
learned so much about ingredients (sugar, fat, soy, corn) and
nutrition, it's really mind blowing. I'm working on an essay for my
friends with some of what I've learned distilled into an intelligible
document. Look for that soon!
http://www.naturalgourmetschool.com/
http://www.naturalgourmetschool.com/html/chefs-training.html
Traveling in Central America
In the last 4 years I've had the luck to have been able to travel to
almost all the countries in Central America. So far I've been to Costa
Rica (2X), Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua. Every time I go
somewhere in Central America I feel like I learn more about myself
than I had planned. I feel guilty about my carbon footprint but I also
feel like it reminds me that there is so much to know about other
places and so much more to appreciate than what we're taught in school
or could learn on our own in books. In 2009 I'm hoping I'll be able
to actively work towards a different kind of connection, less tourist,
more vehicle for assistance. More on that as it happens I'm sure.
